A north Texas counselor claims she was forced to resign for reporting an incident where a teacher committed a violent act against a student.
A lawsuit filed by Gabriana Clay-White on Aug. 17 in Dallas County in north Texas describes last year’s alleged incident. On May 8, a teacher who remained unnamed in the document called a student a “dumb” N-Word, pulled a chair from under him, and stepped on him, Clay-White claims.
The student’s name, as well as the name of the school where the incident occurred, were unnamed in the claim, but the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports the school employees named in the filing worked at David Daniels Academy of Science and Math, an elementary school in Grand Prairie, Texas.
Related: ‘No Real Punishment’: Black Iowa Teacher Says He Was Called the N-Word By Students ‘on At Least a Weekly Basis.’ While Administrators Turned a Blind Eye, It Only Got Worse.
According to the lawsuit, the altercation started over a bag of chips. The special-needs student claimed the bag was taken from him by the teacher, and the student called him dumb in response. In a fit of anger, the teacher pulled the chair from under the student and “then used a racial slur toward the student saying ‘only dumb [n-word] in this room is the one with the blue shirt who can’t read,’” the lawsuit said.
The counselor, who was in the class to assist with the child, claims the teacher tried to pull the chair from under the boy again, but Clay-White intervened and began walking the student toward the door when he tried to swing at the teacher. When he missed and fell on the floor, the teacher proceeded to put her foot on the boy’s chest, the claim says.
Clay-White would report the incident to school officials and child protective services the next day, according to the lawsuit, and would be called to human resources on May 20 to provide a third statement on the incident.
Clay-White says she was forced to resign on June 3, 2022, after reporting the incident she had witnessed and is now suing the Grand Prairie Independent School District.
The lawsuit claims that human resources found her in violation of the ethics code, and she could either get fired or resigned. White chose to “resign under duress,” as stated in the lawsuit.
According to U.S. News, the David Daniels Academy student population is more than 90 percent Black and Latino. African-Americans make up 42 percent, and whites make up 5 percent of the school’s population.
